Hydraulic classifier for separating sand and slime.



W. E. DARROW.

HYDRAULIC CLASSIFIER FOR SEPARATING SAND AND SLIME.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 4,1914

WITNESSES MWTORNEY Patented Aug. 11, 19M.

. PAT l htjl WILTON E. DARROW, OF SUTTER C REEK, CALIFORNIA.

HYDRAULIC CLASSIEIER FOR SEPARATING- SA'zf-"D 1ND SLIME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

vein and Aug. 11, 1914.

Application filed March 4, 1914. Serial No. 5322.336.

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that I, WILTON E. DARROW, a citizen of the United States,residing at .Sutter Creek, in the county of Amador,

State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Hydraulic Classifiers for Separating Sand and Slime; and I do declarethe following to be a clear, full, and exact description of the same,reference being hadto the accompanying drawing, and to the characters ofreference marked thereon, which form a part of this application;

This invention relates to improvements in classifiers for separating theslime and sand from crushed ores, delivering the slime free of the sandto a suitable receptacle from nor as to give accurate results and theinvention further embodies an automatic adjustment for holding the sandin the washing vat in proportion to the amount of sand, water and slimecoming from the mill,

whereby the flow of the washed sand through the bottom of the washingvat will be so automatically controlled that only perfectly clean sandwill pass thcrethrough so that there will no loss of slime.

A further objectof the invention is to produce a simple and inexpensivedevice and yet one which will be exceedingly etlective for the purposesfor which it is de signed.

Thcso objects, I accomplish by means of such structure andrelativearrangement of the parts as will fully appear by a perusal ofthe following specification and claims.

()n the drawings, similar characters of reference indicate correspondingparts in the several views.

Figure 1 is a sectional view oi the cornplete classifier. Fig. 2 is atop plan view of a fragmentary portion of the classifier.

Referring now more particularly to the characters of reference on thedrawings, I

first providea recei ing or distributing receptacle 'WlilCh comprises aplurality of semi-circular segments 1, the free ends {of .such segmentsprojecting between friction spring members 2 whereby the saidi-seg.ments 1 may be slipped between the springs 2 to increase or diminishthe diameter of the dlstributing receptacle 1n a manner, and

for-a purpose as will presently appear.

'ucli distributing receptacle is suspended from a supporting beam orother structure 3 by means of upwardly projecting rods 4 secured to thesegments 1 at their lower ends and projecting through said beam 3 attheir upper ends, such upper ends being threaded, asat 5, .to receivenuts 6, such nuts bearing against the beam 3 whereby when said nuts areadvanced on said threaded portion o,, t-his will pull the rods 4 to pullthe segments 1 upwardly and with the upward movement of said segments 1they are contracted inwardly to lessen the diameter of the distributingmember by means of the following structure, 30

namely: A pipe 7 projects centrally through the distributing member andis provided with a pair of projecting-frame members 8 to which framemembers 8 are engaged links 9, the other ends of said links 9 engagingthe nenibers l, the connections between the members 9 and Sand 9 and 1being flexible to allow of the movement of the parts. Then when the saidmembers 1 are pulled upwardly, the links 9 being connected to the rigidframe members 8 tend to pull inwardly on the segments 1 causing saidsegments to 511p bet-ween the spring members 2 to decrease the diameterof the distrlbuting member or vice versa if the members were loweredthese links 9 would pass outwardly against them to increase the diameterofthe distributing member, all for a purpose as will presently appear.

The distributing member projects into a receiving vat comprising anupper cylindrical portion-10 having a funnel-shaped lower end 11. In theportion 11 are inardly projecting supporting brackets 12 having acentral collar 13 through which the pipe 7 projects to hold the sameproperly centered. Secured rigidly to the pipe 7 below the distributingmember 1-2 and projecting in a plane beyond the plane of the edges ofsaid distributing member is an l inverted .conical chambered member 14formmg a spreader for the sand and slime and being spaced from the sidewalls of the member 11 in such a manner as to form an equal area ofspace between said member 14 and said member 11 from the lower to theupper end of said member 14;.

Projecting centrally through the pipe 7 is a rod 15, which rod isprovided at its lower end with a conical stopper or plug 16 adapted toform a valve to control the opening or closing of the lower end of themember 11. On this rod 15 below 'the lower open end of the pipe 7 is apair of spaced disks or plates 17 and 18 respectively. On the upper endof the rod 15 is connected a lever 19 fulcrumed at 20 and provided witha weight 21 at its outer end. The rod 15 is provided at a point belowthe connection of the lever 15 with a slot 22 through which projects alever 23, which lever is fulcrumed at 2% andprovided with a weight 25 atits outer end. Said lever 23 beyond its fulcrum point moves in a slottedguide 26 which limits the movement of such lever in a manner and for apurpose as will presently appear.

Disposed around the upper end of the member 1.0 is a receiving trough 27having its sides of a greater height than the top edge of the member 10,which receiving :trough is provided with any suitable discharge outletIn practice, the water, sand and slime passing from the crushing mill isdelivered into the distributing member 1-2 where it passes out betweenthe lower end of said distributing member and the member 14,-, thelighter water and slime rising between the sides of the distributingmember 12 and the sidcs of the member 10 and flowing over the top of themember 10 into the receptacle or trough 27. The heavier sands, mixedwith a proportion of the slime, tend to fall down through the spacebetween the member 14 and the sides of the member 11 and a current orstream of clear water is directed through the pipe 7 The force of thisclear water directs itself through the space between the member 11 andthe member 11 in equal proportions due to the area of such space beingthe same for the entire circumference thereof and this force of clearwater passing through the sand moving downwardly through said spacewashes all the slime oft" of the sand and carries it up between thedistributing member and the member 10 and over the upper edge of the member 10 into the trough 27 from which it is conducted to any suitableplace through the rliscluirge outlet 28 for further treatment. "ll;direction of this clear stream of water maintained upwardly instead ofdownwardly through the opening in the lower end of the member 11 bymeans of the following automatically controlled structure, namely: Theweight of the sand falling into the member 11 is sustained in a measureby unease the disks 17 and 18, which weight of llllu sand under ordinaryconditions is suificient to overcome the weight of the lovers 21 and tohold the valve 16 open to such a tie gree as to admit of the dischargeof but a small-proportion of the sand and water through the said openingin the member 11 whereby the greater proportion of the force of waterwill be directed upwardly as set forth above, only a sul'licient amountmoving downwardly to carry the sand gradually through the openingcontrolled by the valve 16. If the full capacity of the classifier islessened, then of course 'the weight'of the sand on the members 17 and18 would tend to lessen and if there were nomeans for automaticallycontrolling-the opening in the member 11, the force of the water wouldbecome so great as to drive all the sand, slime and other materialdownwardly through the opening in the member 11 thus rendering theclassifier inoperative. To overcome this objection however I haveprovided the lever and weight mechanism at the top 01": the classifier,the operation of which is as follows: When the weight of the sand on themembers 17 and 18 lessens, the weight of the two members 21 and 25,acting on their fulcrum points 20 andfi respectively, tend to pull therod 15 and consequently the valve 16 upwardly thus lessening the size ofthe opening in the member 11. This action of both ofthe weights 21 and25 terminates when the lever :23 strikes the bottom of the slottedguide26 and this position of the parts would then be maintained until theweight of sand-increased or diminished. If it increased, the valve 16would open again to full capacity, but if the weight of the sanddecreased, then the weight 21 would become heavier than the weight ofthe sand and would cause the lever 19',to pull independently onthe rod1:1 (this independent movement being permitted by reason 01 the slot 22)and would thus act to close the valve 16 entirely or to such a degree asto prevent too great a flow of the water downwardly through said openingin the member 11 which would tend to carry the sand and slime throughsuch opening instead of separating the sand and slime.

As will. be readily conceived, it is necessary that the areasbetween-the distributing member 1--2 and the member 14 and between saiddistributing member 1-2 and the member 1'0 be adjusted Very nicely tocause the proper separation of the slime and sand at that point andsimilarly the space between the member 14- and the member 11 must benicely adjusted so that the flow of the cur rent of water therethroughwill be of such force as to only wash the slime from the sand leavingthe sand free to drop down into the lower end of the member 11. To thisend,

the member l2 is adjustable vertically and diametrically in the mannerset forth and further, the member 3 carrying the pipe 7 and member 14may be raised or lowered, such pipe being guided through the collar 13to keep it centered and then the automatic adjustment described provides"for the lessening or increasing amount of material,received from thecrushing mill.

From the foregoing description it will readily be seen that I haveproduced such a device as substantially fulfils the objects of theinvention as set forth herein.

While this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferredconstruction of the device, still in practice, such deviations from suchdetail may be resorted to as do not form a departure from the spirit ofthe invcntion.

Having thus described my invention what- I claim as new and useful anddesire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A device of the characterdescribed, comprising a casing having a valve controlled lower end, apipe projecting centrally into said casing, a spreader on said pipehaving its sides spaced from the sides of said casing, a distributingreceptacle disposed above such spreaderand having its sides spaced fromthe sides of said casing, a rod projecting centrally through said pipeand connected with the valve at the lower end of said casing, a pair ofspaced disks on said rod below said pipe and a weight controlled lever mchanism mounted on the upper end of said rod, as described.

A device of the character described comprising the combination of acasing having a valve controlled lower end, a spreader disposed-withinsaid casing, a pipe discharging below said spreader, a distributingrenection WheneVerthey are raised or lowcred whereby the diameter ofsaid receptacle will be lessened or increased respectively, asdescribed.

A device of the character described comprising a casing having a valvecontrolled opening in its lower end, a spreader disposed within saidcasing, a pipe discharging; below such spreader, a distributingreceptacle disposed above said spreader, means for raising and loweringsaid reccptacle and means for lessening or increasing the diameter ofsaid receptacle respectively as it is raised or lowered, as described.

t. A device of the character described comprising a casing having avalve controlled opening in its lower end, a pipe disposed centrallyinto said casing, an inverted cone shaped spreader disposed on saidpipe, a distributing receptacle disposed above said spreader, saidreceptacle comprising segmental sides slidably joined at their-freeedges, arms rigidly connected to said, pipe, links flexibly connectedwith said rigid arms and with said segmental members, and means forraising or lowering said segmental members, as described.

In testimony whereof I allix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILTON E. DARROW.

Witnesses STEPHEN N. BLEWETT, FLOYD M. BIANCHARD.

